


Character Study: Combeferre

by TheBraveHobbit



Series: Taut [3]
Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-14
Updated: 2013-07-14
Packaged: 2017-12-20 03:31:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/882435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBraveHobbit/pseuds/TheBraveHobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Modern!AU Combeferre: Naturalist, Thespian, Teacher</p>
            </blockquote>





	Character Study: Combeferre

**Author's Note:**

> Part of my sandbox-style Modern!AU: Taut  
> Additional content can be found on my tumblr: elfjolras.tumblr.com

 

**Modern!AU Combeferre: Naturalist, Thespian, Teacher**

 

> _"He’s right you know."_   
>  _“About what?"_   
>  _“We can’t possibly say that we have succeeded at anything, until we have seriously looked at education reform."_   
>  _“I agree it is an issue—a serious issue—but the primary issue, the sole measurement of our success?"_   
>  _"Changing the world has got to begin with shaping the minds of the next generation. The future lies entirely in the hands of the schoolmaster, love."_

Generally, the university’s policy is to limit each T.A. to one lab section apiece. Combeferre teaches three: two pre-med A&P sections and one invertebrate taxonomy lab. He had to do some rather passionate negotiating in order to allow this, but that was a simple matter for him. Nobody could ever say he doesn’t care about his students, and unlike many T.A.’s, Combeferre absolutely  _loves_ teaching. He can’t get enough of interacting with curious minds, and his A&P section is the most popular of all the pre-med classes; there’s intense competition between the undergraduate students, and in the six years he’s been teaching it, there’s never been an empty seat in either session. Unfortunately, this is his last semester as a T.A.; he’s graduating, first in his class, and his residency as a cardiologist will begin this summer.

After so long as both a student and a teacher, he’s a little uncertain how he feels about the transition, but he’s already made arrangements with the department to join the staff as a part-time tutor.

With finishing his degree, planning lessons and grading papers (not to mention supporting Enjolras’ many endeavors) it’s amazing that Combeferre ever has time to pursue hobbies. Despite his amazing amount of focus, his interests are not limited to the fields of medicine and biology. Since his freshman year, he’s held one of the leading roles in every production of the community theater. To be fair, the main reason he got that first role in Hamlet is because he was the only one who could get his hands on an actual human skull for the props department, but he gave an impressive performance and he’s only continued to improve, even branching into musical pieces. Often he recruits Jehan and Courfeyrac to help him run lines before an audition, and even Enjolras has been known to indulge him in delivering a deadpan recital of Christine Daae’s part. Combeferre was an impeccable Raoul, and he unapologetically has changed Enjolras’ ringtone to ‘All I Ask of You’.

Three walls of the bedroom operate as a functional library, complete with a filing system categorizing hits collection by topic, author, and level of approval through the peer review process. Feuilly helped with that, both with building the shelves and designing the organizational concept.

Feuilly helped him build the “bug-box” too, a wall-sized tribute to the impressive insect collection he’s accumulated in his eight years of teaching taxonomy. Poor Enjolras took forever to adjust to that, walking into their room to find a book and being confronted by the centerpiece of the collection, a giant pinned beetle, and he still gets a start whenever he opens their freezer to find a butterfly in a jar propped carefully up against their ice trays. The risks of falling in love with a scientist…Enjolras was warned. (He was also warned about holding events that conflict with new episodes of Doctor Who. Combeferre let him have that one free pass, but he will take matters into his own hands next time. See how much gets done when their meeting minutes are recorded in Circular Gallifreyan…)


End file.
